Youth and Community Arts for the High Peak
If you joined us on 17th September, you’ll be looking for your animated gifs of everything you made…
Thanks for coming along and making it an absorbing and creative session! And thanks to the bubble man for entertaining the throngs of people outside!!
Alison and Sophie were joined by artist, Katy McCall and people had come from as far away as Saddleworth. Youngest person, aged 2 tried out some simple pop-up, and others browsed our books to design something more mechanically challenging!
Our schools programme has been running since 2015 with funding from the National Foundation for Youth Music matched by Derbyshire Music Education Hub and contributions from the schools.
This year (2018/19) we are working in Glossopdale Community College, Buxton Community School and New Mills School, to provide weekly music and arts activities for pupils who needed a boost in their learning.
Each year we launch with a trip to Manchester to work at Band on the Wall for the day, where the young people work with their technician on the sound and lighting desk and with professional musicians with different backgrounds. In the sessions that followed the young people work with Lucy LeClaire, Eskay and G-kut to learn new skills, such as programming music on software such as Garageband, Logic and Ableton Live; writing lyrics about their lives, and using this to talk about ‘life in general’ in an open way; Researching their musical influences and art and design used by recording artists; and instrumental skills. They also gain in self confidence and dialogue with staff and teachers who see them achieving and working together. Since 2015 64 young people have gained an Arts Award from Trinity College London at Bronze or Explore level.
“It has given me the chance to express myself and I enjoyed doing something without be judged.” Young participant
We also sign post participants into our out of school activity, like Film Cuts Club and Tall Tales.
“The best bit was being creative with music in a chilled atmosphere where we can talk about life in general.” Young participant.
The third year of Tall Tales has unsettled audiences in Buxton’s Poole’s Cavern with a journey into Poole’s Cavern they won’t forget…
Young performers from Glossop and Buxton welcomed the audience to their book launch, only for proceedings to be interrupted by the book’s contents disappearing back into the cave where it came from! Luckily the assembled public were willing to help find the characters and get the book back on sale. Setting out in four search parties they entered the cave to find the Water Goddess, the Fire Goddess, ghosts, bats, Roman soldiers and a Bronze Age man and at the very foot a medium trying to communicate (badly) with the former inhabitants of the cave.
When they met NoName they found someone forced into the limelight and shrinking from the crowds attracted to the book launch. He was so uncertain of his place in the world he couldn’t take part, taking all the characters with him. But along the way the audience had found letters which seemed to hold a clue, and together they worked out his name. Back at the visitors’ centre everyone called for Norman and he returned to take up his new identity. With all the characters gathered around him he found that “True friends will always be there for you!”
A cast of 22 performed to a sell out audience, with people coming from across the High Peak… And here is a first peek at what it looked like:
The young people from Glossop and Buxton created the show during a 6 day Summer School. Now in its third year, Tall Tales is High Peak Community Arts’ performing arts programme for young people across the district. Each year the project starts in April with evening creative sessions in Gamesley and Fairfield. People can come along to try new skills in musical instruments, vocals, writing or music production, and they sign up for the August Summer School.
In the first two years of the project we worked from published books to create the show. In 2014 audiences saw Blue John, from the book by Berlie Doherty, and in 2015 we staged 100% Wolf by Jayne Lyons. But now the young members of the project have demanded they create their own story, and so we launched the Young Writers’ Camp in April 2016, where young people from all our projects and others from Manchester came together to be inspired at Poole’s Cavern. They created characters and stories to fill our Young Writers’ Camp Collection, ‘Mind Your Head’. Tall Tales has been working with these ideas ever since and now they have been able to set their show back in the caves that inspired it!
This year Tall Tales has been funded by Arts Council England, the Derbyshire Music Education Hub, Derbyshire County Council and Buxton Festival. For more information contact Sophie at High Peak Community Arts on 01663 744516 or sophie@highpeakarts.org
This mosaic is in the Fenton Ward lounge of The Cavendish Hospital, Buxton
This poster was on display at Manchester Piccadilly Station for about a year. We have some in stock, as well as lovely postcards, if you would like your own.
These images are on the Hope Valley station platforms:
These framed collages have been donated donated to community venues in each village: Edale Village Hall, Bamford Memorial Hall, Hope and Hathersage GP surgeries; and Grindleford Station cafe.
This collage was donated to the High Peak and Hope Valley Community Rail Partnership
Free event. All welcome to Project eARTh’s Unveiling of:
* 5 collages of the Hope Valley – Edale, Hope, Bamford, Hathersage and Grrindleford
* Posters – Visit The Peak District by Train’ featuring all 5 collage images, to encourage train use into the Hope Valley
*Di bond prints of each collage to be diplayed at each station.
There will be a photographic exhibiton of the project and how the collages were made, and refreshments.
After the Unveiling at the Moorland Centre, we will vist Edale Station to see the site of one of th di-bond prints.
Participants worked with artist Caro Inglis on this project.
Project eARTh is funded by The Big Lottery Fund.
The posters and di- bond images are being printed courtesy of The High Peak and Hope Valley Community Rail Partnership.
We are launching our Tall Tales programme for a third year and looking for new young people to join in the exciting programme to write stories and songs, play instruments and create visual art. The first 10 sessions are based on Fairfield in Buxton and Gamesley and are open to anyone aged 8+ and free to take part.
For the last two years the programme has made a final show from a published book, which was Blue John by Berlie Doherty in 2014, and 100% Wolf by Jayne Lyons in 2015. This year the ideas for the final show will be created by the groups themselves, starting with ideas formed at the Young Writers’ Camp in the Easter holidays. Project Manager, Sophie Mackreth, said “anyone who wants to feel creative for 2 hours a week should come along and find out what we’re doing – you can write a song, form a band, make a giant pop-up book and work with everyone else in drama and music.”
We are able to offer the programme for free as it is funded by Arts Council England, the Derbyshire Music Education Hub and with contributions from two local councillors, Caitlin Bisknell and Dave Wilcox. Previous years have shown young people develop in areas such as confidence, resourcefulness and team working – skills which contribute to their progress outside of the project. The final performance will be part of the Buxton Family Festival – so the whole community can share in the achievement of our local young people.
For more information phone Sophie on 01663 744 516 or click here to check out what happened on last year’s project.
Sessions are:
Fairfield: Wednesdays 6 – 8pm at Fairfield Sure Start, Victoria Park Road, Buxton, SK17 7PE, from Wednesday 27th April to 13th July (no session 1st or 8th June).
Gamesley: Thursdays 4.30 – 6.30pm at Gamesley Community Café, Winster Mews, Gamesley, SK13 0LU, from Thursday 28th April to 14th July (no session 2nd or 9th June).
Join us to celebrate and unveil this glorious mosaic made for the Fenton Ward of the Cavendish Hospital in Buxton. Project eARTh participants have created this mosaic featuring much loved and familiar Buxton landmarks, with artist Debra Tracey. There will be tea and cake. FREE . All welcome.
